Over The Hill

Mid-week it seemed a good idea for a Saturday walk as the weather forecast was quite good. On checking the mountain forecast at 7:30 Saturday morning things didn't look quite so good, Cloud base 300m - Extensive hill fog - Wind 45mph, gusting to 70 - Wind effect, extreme on higher ridges. Why then come 9:30 were we still booting up at Coileitir?

Following a short discussion on which route we preferred we set off to take the direct approach, straight up the 800m ascent alongside of the tumbling waters of the Eag an Uillt to the minor top of Beinn Chaorach and then onwards to the summit of Stob Coir an Albannaich. Once over the River Etive we took the fork in the track towards Glen Ceitlein and then almost immediately left the main track and turned south east, through an old barred gate and started to climb uphill through a mixture of tall grass, bracken and birch trees.

Surprisingly, there was a path of sorts trampled through the thick grasses, which you could follow. reasonably well as it wound its way between the trees, and made its way ever more steeply uphill. At about the 180 metre height the woodland ends abruptly at a fenceline, across which you enter open hillside, and the terrain changes to deep grassy tufts and small rocky outcrops whilst the gradient gets slightly steeper still. The path, or at least what you could loosely describe as a path, edges above the waters of the Eag an Uillt, with a few steep edges as it passes around a number of waterfalls, which, given the relatively dry conditions had a trickle of water only, but which, I imagine would look very impressive at times of heavy rainfall.

We had been climbing on the northern side of the gully, but as the gradient began to ease and we reached the 670 metre height, we crossed the stream and angled away from the gully towards a row of small crags we could just see through the mist ahead, and which mark the edges of the rocky summit of Beinn Chaorach. This minor top sports an equally minor cairn, a few rocks and that was it. However, given the thick mist and low cloud that suddenly engulfed us as we hit the 800 metre height, that small cairn gave us the location, and thus the bearing we needed to descend towards the head of Coire Glas.

Passing the small lochans en route we soon reached the stream flowing into the coire, and with the mist still swirling around, we set off to cross the broad featureless slopes for about a kilometre aiming to join the upper ridge line some 500 metres north west of the summit cairn, from where it was a straightforward walk along the ridge before we finally caught sight of the large cairn topping the summit of Stob Coir an Albannaich

As we took our break huddled behind the summit cairn, we discussed our options; would we continue onto Meall nan Eun, return via the Allt Mheuran or retrace our steps and return, as we had arrived, via Beinn Chaorach. We would liked to have continued to Meall nan Eun, but the weather so far had been kinder than the forecast, and we did not want to push our luck and find it deteriorating to forecast levels, so Meall nan Eun would have to wait for another day. As for the Allt Mheuran, well we just did not fancy the bog-fest that greets you for the length of the return from the bealach to Coileitir, and so, reluctantly, we decided just to return as we had arrived.

As it transpired, we made the right decision for by the time we returned to the cars, the wind had picked up and the cloud base was dropping rapidly, so much so that as we departed and drove back along Glen Etive the whole glen was shrouded in low clouds, and the rain was threatening to get quite heavy. So, Meall nan Eun must wait for another day!

Great walk, great company - Thanks to all.